Reading through Form: A Session in Memory of Kurt Olsson

Sponsoring Organization(s)

John Gower Society

Organizer Name

Brian Gastle

Organizer Affiliation

Western Carolina Univ.

Presider Name

Brian Gastle

Paper Title 1

When Forms Become Things: Virgil's Mirror and the Matter of Poetry

Presenter 1 Name

Steele Nowlin

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Pennsylvania State Univ.

Paper Title 2

Rhetorical Bodies: Richard II, Edward II, and Gower's "Lucrece"

Presenter 2 Name

Jeb Sharp

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Louisville

Paper Title 3

John Gower, Squire of Kent, the Peasants' Revolt, and the Cobham Connection

Presenter 3 Name

Michael Bennett

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Tasmania

Paper Title 4

Reflections on Kurt Olsson and Response

Presenter 4 Name

R. F. Yeager

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Univ. of West Florida

Start Date

10-5-2018 3:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1135

Description

Reading through Form: A Special Session in Memory of Kurt Olsson

Kurt Olsson’s seminal study, John Gower and the Structures of Conversion: A Reading of the Confessio Amantis, opened Gower’s poem to the ways in which reading for and through form permits structures to emerge that are deeply integral to the way in which the poem generates meaning. In addition, recent scholarly interest in form as a governing force of literary and cultural production demonstrates the way in which formal approaches to analysis produce readings that challenge our assumptions about medieval texts work on their readers. In this panel, we ask contributors to explore the ways in which Gower uses, challenges, or complicates the idea of form, be it in terms of literary conventions, linguistic registers, historical structures, or other formal variants. We especially welcome papers that speak to Olsson’s work with reading and compositional practices as they relate to devotion, history, and/or the law.

Brian Gastle